Saturday, July 19, 2014

I have been absent for a while - probably because I have not been
reading particularly often, unless you count that we read Little Women
for book club in June, and I found it overwhelmingly disappointing. I had read it when I was a child - once - and had watched the movie - once - and couldn't remember much about it when we agreed it could be fun to read it again. It was not. What a painful book. I have to admit I didn't actually finish because I just found myself thinking I could be spending my time in so many different, more valuable ways...

This month's book club selection was much better:

Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down.

I've actually read this one before, but knew that I would want to read it again.

I see that a movie has recently been released and I hope that it is good, but I suspect it will Hollywood-ize this to an extent that misses Nick Hornby's graceful and careful handling of difficult subject matter. This novel is well and truly a comedic novel, but it grapples with suicide with more empathy and realism than anything else I have ever read - at least, it feels that way to me.

Four strangers meet on a London rooftop on New Year's Eve, intending to throw themselves off. This is the story of their unlikely friendship - a friendship based on the fact that they are the only people they know who understand what it's like not to want to live anymore. Apart from that, they are alien to each other - poles apart.

The two main things I admire about this book are that:

Each of the main characters has a unique and distinctive voice, and the author inhabits them equally effectively. It's not often that you see an author manage to narrate equally successfully through such different characters. Even though I finished reading the book a couple of weeks ago, I still think of the characters and am absorbed in their stories. I don't think of the mechanics of the prose or the plotline, but the characters are real to me. That is what makes a good novel.

I don't think the novel sentimentalizes or sugar-coats the issues. It doesn't do away with the realities facing each of the characters, or suggest that life is going to become, miraculously, easy. Somehow, nonetheless, it demonstrates the possibility of hope. I really think that Nick Hornby has done a service to humankind in writing it. I hope that it has helped people.

Books read, 2014

1. Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen2. Five Little Pigs, by Agatha Christie3. I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith4. The Man in the Brown Suit, by Agatha Christie5. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, by Helen Fielding6. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie7. A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis, by Eugene Bardach8. Hyperbole and a Half, by Allie Brosh9. The Watsons & Emma Watson, by Jane Austen and Joan Aiken10. Evil Under the Sun, by Agatha Christie11. The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho12. Love in a Cold Climate, by Nancy Mitford13. The Tricksters, by Margaret Mahy14. A Three-Pipe Problem, by Julian Symons15. Cotillion, by Georgette Heyer16. A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby17. Sight Reading, by Daphne Kalotay18. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen19. Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer20. Cousin Kate, by Georgette Heyer21. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson22. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis23. The Guernsey Literary and Potato-Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer24. A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire: Book 1), by George R. R. Martin25. God in a Brothel, by Daniel Walker26. Yes Please, by Amy Poehler

Books read, 2015

1. Not That Kind of Girl, by Lena Dunham2. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy3. That Hideous Strength, by C. S. Lewis